


Space Scavengers AU

by QueenCoeurl



Series: Prompts, One-Offs, and Gifts [6]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Space, Dead People, Explicit Language, Gen, Technology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 09:11:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12884676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenCoeurl/pseuds/QueenCoeurl
Summary: When diving the wreck of an old colony ship, Gavin makes an important discovery. The crew of the Achievement Hunter captained by Geoff Ramsey find themselves a new member.





	Space Scavengers AU

**Author's Note:**

> Something I've been sitting on for a long time, and will probably never finish

  Gavin adjusted the gloves of his protective exo-suit before bending over to push aside a large metal piece of plating. This planet had a safe to breath atmosphere, but the high sulfur content had them decide that wearing an exo-suit was preferable over the perpetual smell of bad farts.

  “Anythin' over on your end, Geoff?” He asked over their communal comms.

  “Lots of scrap metal, some wiring – nothing worth anything special.” Geoff’s voice replied in Gavin’s ear, “How's our ship, Jack?”

  Jack’s voice came clear as day, “We’re fine, no one else has showed for the distress call... Yet.”

  “It’s a really weak signal, even while standing right on top of it.” Gavin stated.

  “Gavin’s right; we’re lucky we caught it. I don’t think we have to worry about company.” Geoff added.

  Gavin pushed further into the wreckage of the crash. Their scans had shown there were no survivors and it was easy to see why. What had once been a massive transport ship of some kind was now strewn across several miles of uncolonized planet.

  “If we caught the signal, so can someone else.” Jack warned, “Find the source and kill it.”

  “On it.” Gavin flicked on the external lighting of his suit. This far into the ship it was getting frighteningly dark, and the last thing he wanted to do was fall through a hole and drop several stories. Their scans had shown that a good chunk of the ship was still whole and buried in the impact crater.

  His HUD was doing its best to lock on to the dying distress beacon. It was somewhere near the center of the remains, but the exact location was being blocked by the planet’s strong magnetic interference.

  He nearly tripped over some cabling as he entered a chamber. His reaction time and perception might have been far greater than that of an average human, but he still managed to be the clumsiest member of the crew. He saved himself from falling at the last second by grabbing onto a large brown tube. Gathering himself, he let the light from his suit illuminate the tube. It was a good seven feet long and three feet wide. Appearing to be made of glass it was capped at either end with metal, and looked as if it had once been mounted on the wall. Large cracks were spread across the glass and a piece was missing near the top. Unable to stop himself, Gavin shined his light inside.

  Mold; the tube was filled with it, and in the center of the brown mold...

  Gavin yelped as he spotted the toothy grin of a human skull.

  “What’s going on?! Gavin!” Geoff was immediately worried. He knew the dangers of a wreck far too well.

  Gavin composed himself, more startled than horrified. Working as a scrap scavenger had you come across your fair share of bodies, “Found a body; scared the ever living crap outta me.”

  “Christ, Gavin.” Michael chastised over the comm, “I thought you’d died the way you screamed!”

  “Or saw himself in a mirror.” Jeremy chuckled.

  Gavin was annoyed, “That was ONE time!”

  The whole comm burst into laughter in Gavin’s ear as he better looked around the chamber. There were several of the tubes in various states of damage strewn about. None looked whole, and if each contained a body…

  “Guys, I think this was a colony ship, not a cargo one.” He concluded, “Looks like a bunch of cryo tubes all busted up.”

  “A colony ship? You sure? They could have been smuggling people, or a prison transport-” Jack was interrupted by Geoff.

  “If it’s a colony ship it’ll be full of resources for the new settlement. Rare minerals, metals, fuel, and a bunch of tech!” Geoff grew excited, “It would be our biggest payday yet!”

  Michael sighed, “Yeah, but I bet most of it is splattered across half the planet at this point. If it’s still there. We have no idea how old this wreck is. We might not be the first to find it.”

  Gavin exited on the opposite side of the chamber into what must have been an elevator shaft. He attached his magnetic tether and began to rappel down, “Goin’ in deeper; they’d keep supplies close to the cryo-chamber, right?”

  “Maybe. Like Michael says; we have no idea how old this ship is, nevermind the model. Our scans can only show us so much.” Jack replied.

  “I’ve still found nothing.” Geoff stated, “Maybe I should go over where you are, Gavin.”

  Gavin shrugged as his foot made contact with the floor of the lowest level he could reach. Wreckage blocked the deeper floors, “If you want. You’re the one who decided where we would search.”

  Geoff made a hesitant noise, “But then I might miss out on something over here.”

  Michael laughed, “Make up your mind!”

  “Oh shut up!” Geoff snapped, “Do you want to leave the shuttle and do this instead?!”

  “Like hell I leave in order to hang out on fart planet. Besides, you hate watching the shuttle.” Michael retorted.

  Geoff had to agree, he found shuttle-sitting extremely boring, “Doesn’t mean I won’t drag you out here!”

  “Children calm down.” Jeremy laughed. He was safe up on their ship with Jack. While Jack was on the bridge, he was down in his quarters playing videogames.

  “Fuck you, Jeremy.” Michael said.

  “Yeah, you should be out here too.” Gavin complained.

  “My arm needs service! You bastards had me lift that structural beam and now it’s all busted!” Jeremy whined, “Fix my arm and I’ll go down!” he was a heavily modified individual with many biomechanically augmented parts.

  “You should know how to fix your own damn arm!” Geoff shouted.

  “Just like you can fix yours if it breaks?!” Jeremy argued, “Without a doctor?!”

  “Broken bones are different than actuators!” Geoff told him.

  “No they aren’t! Bones can heal themselves! Actuators can’t!” Jeremy insisted.

  Gavin snorted in amusement as he squeezed himself past a thick heavily armoured door that had been smashed open. A door this heavy-duty had to be protecting something good.

  Entering, his HUD immediately locked on to the source of the distress signal. It was within a group of old processor units that were surprisingly ok.

  “Found our signal!” He announced happily, “And the brain of the ship; looks like maybe the main processors.”

  Geoff perked up at that, “Oh? How old do they look? Can we still sell them for anything?”

  Gavin neared to inspect them further. He unlocked a rack of processors and pulled it free, “Eh, maybe close to ten years old. Don’t know if it’s really worth much… maybe as scrap?”

  “Well at least turn off the distress beacon before you do anything else.” Jack reminded him.

  Gavin scanned the room and saw the signal source. He smiled, “The signal’s coming from a neural core!”

  “Yes!” Geoff cheered, “If it’s still working we can sell that for huge money!”

  “Even a ten year old one? Wouldn’t we have to update it through ten years of tech? Neural Intelligence may be a learning intelligence, but it still needs to learn…” Michael was hesitant to celebrate.

  “NI’s can be taught pretty quickly.” Jeremy said, “Can’t they?”

  “Only with the proper virtual environment.” Michael informed him, “And that’s not something we have.”

  Jack thought it over, “But Gus might.”

  “And even if he doesn’t, Neural cores are only about the size of a large thermos. We lose nothing by grabbing it.” Geoff explained, “Pry it loose Gavin. We’ll have to check its integrity back on board, but cores are basically NI black boxes meant to survive everything but a black hole.”

  “Yup, will do.” Gavin told them. He attempted to unscrew the cover over the core, but it was warped by impact and stuck tight, “Alright, gonna need to pull out some tools to pry it free, but we should be good.”

  “Take your time, if it isn’t damaged I don’t want you breaking it after it survived a planetary impact.” Geoff warned him.

  Gavin made an indignant squawk, “I’m no planetary impact!”

  “Sometimes you may as well be.” Geoff mumbled, but the comm caught it all and they started laughing.

  “Guys…” Gavin groaned, but pulled out his multi-tool and began trying to work the cover loose. It took a bit of work, but when it came to this kind of puzzle solving, Gavin was fully in his element. With a cheer he removed the cover and gently reached in for the core.

  He carefully pulled it free with a low whistle.

  “What does it look like?” Geoff was eager to know.

  “Like nothin’ I’ve ever seen before” Gavin was in awe. Within protective clear casing was suspended the neural core. It was a black hexagonal prism almost a foot long and five inches across. Up and down each face, circuitry slowly pulsed with a dull deep blue light. The dim, bright, dim cycle reminded Gavin of the breathing of some kind of creature, and he could feel the sleeping electrical life in his hands.

  He’d held neural cores before- worked with them even- but this, this felt _alive._ Something that NI’s were not.

  “What you never seen the brain of a Neural Intelligence before?” Jeremy asked, “I can show you our ship’s one next time we dock, if you want.”

  Gavin shook his head and realised they couldn’t see him, “No, just, here. Take a look.” He used his HUD and set it to transmit what he was seeing.

  Geoff gave a low whistle, “Now that has to be worth something.”

  “I haven’t seen a core like that before.” Jeremy admitted, “But it is clearly a core of some kind.”

  “Do we bring it aboard?” Jack wanted to be cautious, “It could be viral or corrupted.”

  “Looks fine to me.” Geoff said, “And it’s not like we’re gonna jam it into our network without testing it first.”

  “Why is it so creepy looking? It’s like it’s breathing or something.” Michael observed, “Was that the fashion ten years ago? Make tech creepy and unnerving as fuck? All the neural cores I’ve seen have been white or grey, never black.”

  “I’ve seen a black one for sale once.” Jeremy told him, “Stupid expensive for something you never see. I think it’s a rich person thing.”

  “Lot of good it did them.” Gavin looked away from the core in his hands and began to pick his way back, ensuring to shut off his video feed.

  “Here’s hoping it wasn’t a NI malfunction that crashed the ship, or it’s worthless.” Jack pointed out.

  “A NI that crashes your ship is not great.” Michael said.

  “Let’s just get it on board and test it. I’m excited to see if it’s worth anything, and if it even fucking works.” Geoff told them.

  Gavin reached the elevator shaft and reattached his magnetic tether. With the click of a button it began to steadily retract, carrying him and the core back up.

  “I want to know if we can get it to stop emitting that distress signal.” Jack added.

  Gavin flipped the core over, trying to see if there was some kind of button or antenna he could use. Nothing.

  “Doesn’t look like it. Must be software controlled.” He told them.

  “That’s dumb.” Michael commented.

  “I guess the designers must have figured that either someone finds it and turns it on, or the power dies.” Jeremy offered.

   Gavin emerged from the ship’s wreckage and had to use a free hand to shade his eyes. He shut off his external lights and used his HUD to locate their small shuttle. Shuttle located, he hurried towards it.

  Geoff was already at the shuttle by the time Gavin arrived. He didn’t even have a chance to remove his exo-suit before Geoff grabbed the core from him.

  “This is something freaky, isn’t it?” Geoff looked the core over before passing it to Michael.

  “Told you.” Michael gave the core a quick once over before handing it back.

  “What should we hook up to it first? Do we do it here or wait until we’re back on the ship proper?” Gavin removed his exo-suit helmet and began to undo the air tight seals in the other portions of the suit. The seals gave quick hisses as they were broken.

  “I’d like to err on the side of caution and have you guys attach it to a tablet down in the shuttle before we bring it aboard…” Jack said.

  “But we have better equipment on the ship for diagnostics. We could check it out and scan it before hooking it up to anything.” Geoff countered, “Know what it is, _before_ we turn it on.”

  “But in the shuttle we aren’t shit outta luck if the damn thing fries our system.” Michael argued, “We’d still have out second shuttle be able to come pick us up. If we fry our main ship’s system… we’re done.”

  “We’re not gonna jack it into our main core!” Jeremy laughed at the idea, “Give it a closed system like a tablet or holo-projector that isn’t connected to the ship directly.

  Plus, I really wanna see it.”

  Jack sighed audibly, “Fine, bring it up.”

 

  It didn’t take long for the shuttle to return to the Achievement Hunter. The ship was nearing ten years old and was beginning to show its age. She was patched up and modified, heavily renovated bit by bit, and this created a strange mish mash of a vessel. Originally she’d been a small transport caravan meant for shipping things such as parcels quickly and efficiently over long interstellar distances. Now she was almost unrecognisable, with a weapons system torn from raiding bandits, a crudely expanded cargo hold, a communications array from a Galnet satellite, and three engines each from a different origin. Instead of delivering parcels, she was used to scavenge scrap.

 

  Gavin put the neural core down on a table in the center of their engineering/med bay/mess hall/common room. It was a small and cramped ship.

  Jack approached with a diagnostic tablet and began his scans as everyone else watched in curiosity.

  “Definitely looks cooler in person.” Jeremy commented as Jack tapped away on the tablet.

  Jack looked up from his tablet, “Well whatever it is, it isn’t raising any red flags, and I can’t check it for file corruption until we turn it on and connect to it.”

  “Then let’s do it.” Geoff gave Jack permission.

  Jack nodded. He grabbed a thin cable and connected it to his tablet and then the core. It would provide both power and data. His tablet immediately lit up with unknown software warnings, but he ignored them and got the initial status, “So it isn’t fully shut down, which is why there’s the distress signal, but the internal power supply is running dangerously low. I’m gonna send it power and boot it up to see if I can turn off the signal and then run a diagnostic.”

  Everyone nodded.

  When Jack sent the core power, the dim deep blue light turned bright sky blue.

  “Well you did something.” Michael cocked his head.

  The core’s pulsating cycle changed. It remained on with the occasional flicker or series of flickers.

  “It’s curious.” Gavin couldn’t help but feel as if the core were something being poked awake, “I think it’s thinking.”

  “The distress signal stopped.” Jack reported, “I’m going to run the integrity diagnostic now.” He poked around on the tablet and began the scan only to immediately get an error, “Ah shit, of course there’s a firewall. Hold on.”

  “Firewall? What kind? I’m good with firewalls.” Gavin perked up. He took the tablet from Jack and booted up a firewall cracking program.

  The core began to flicker angrily and the firewall cracking program self-terminated with a cryptic error:

_Error:_

_No_

_Cancel/OK_

  “Uh.” Gavin tried to open the program again, but it didn’t even start before the same error popped up. “Oi.” So he tried a third time and this time a new error appeared:

              _Error:_

_Stop_

_OK?_

  Gavin looked up at everyone watching him, “Uh, it’s just givin’ me weird errors.”

  “Let me try.” Jeremy came over and took the tablet. Instead of trying to launch a program he instead entered the console and tried to pry out the code.

              _Error:_

_Last Warning_

_Press Any Key to Continue_

  Jeremy tapped the screen and his console closed, “Ok… I think maybe the NI doesn’t want us to scan it.”

  “What kind of sarcastic bastard programs those kinds of warnings?” Gavin asked, “Or where does a machine learn them?”

  “Maybe it was a whole crew of sarcastic fucks and it adapted.” Michael theorised.

  “I’m just gonna interact with it directly instead of trying to bypass its security.” Jeremy said, “Hopefully it isn’t a virus, or we’ll need a new tablet.”

  He opened up a dialogue window and didn’t even have a chance to type anything before text appeared instantly.

_UnknownUser:_

_Who are you?_

_Where am I?_

_What is going on?_

    Jeremy quickly typed back.

_AH_Tablet3:_

_Hi!_

_I’m Jeremy :D_

_UnknownUser:_

_Is this some kind of sick joke?_

_Where am I?_

_AH_Tablet3:_

_We just saved you, Mr. Grumpy Pants_

_UnknownUser:_

_What?_

_AH_Tablet3:_

_You’re on the Achievement Hunter, we found you_

_UnknownUser:_

_A ship?_

_AH_Tablet3:_

_Yeah_

 

  A pause. The core was flickering enthusiastically as if processing something difficult.

_UnknownUser:_

_What kind?_

_AH_Tablet3:_

_An old courier caravan_

  Jeremy didn’t notice as the wifi on the tablet turned itself from ‘off’ to ‘on’ and successfully connected to their ship’s network.

_UnknownUser:_

_Were you sent for me?_

_AH_Tablet3:_

_We followed your distress signal._

_UnknownUser:_

_And the status of my ship?_

_AH_Tablet3:_

_Destroyed_

_UnknownUser:_

_Any survivors?_

_AH_Tablet3:_

_No_

_UnknownUser:_

_Yikes_

  “Guys, this thing just said ‘Yikes’.” Jeremy couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “Seriously?” Michael couldn’t believe and had to see for himself.

  Jack scratched his beard, “If this NI has been left alone for a decade… what if it had been awake for a good deal of it? What kind of personality would its program warp into?”

  “Ok, stop.” Geoff told Jack, “We can always wipe it back to its default OS.”

  “I was talking more from a scientific perspective, I think it would be cool to see.” Jack explained, “Jeremy, can I try talking to it?”

  “Sure.” Jeremy handed him the tablet back.

  Jack read the conversation and began to type:

_AH_Tablet3:_

_What was your cargo? The purpose of your travel?_

_UnknownUser:_

_Is the current date on this tablet accurate?_

  Jack frowned, he didn’t like how it had ignored his question.

_AH_Tablet3:_

_Yes_

_UnknownUser:_

_Unfortunate_

_Who knows the five of you are out here?_

That sent chills down Jack’s spine. Not only was it an ominous question to ask, but this NI had no way of knowing how many people were aboard the ship-

  Jack noticed that the wireless communications were on. He’d shut them off before connecting the tablet as a precautionary measure. No program should have been able to circumvent their firewall and turn it back on.

  “Jeremy, did you accidentally turn on the wifi?” He asked.

  “Huh? No I don’t think so…?” Jeremy thought it over.

  Jack put the tablet down and hurried over to a console. Checking things over, it all looked normal. “Neil?” he addressed the ship’s Neural Intelligence.

  The was a period of silence where the core flickered more violently.

  “Yes?” a male voice answered.

  “Run a full scan of your systems and check for intrusions.” Jack ordered.

  “You don’t think something’s wrong?” Gavin grew worried.

  “The wifi’s on, and I made sure to turn it off.” Jack told them, “And that’s a direct line to the ship.”

  “No anomalies detected.” Neil replied.

  The core calmed its flicker.

  Jack squinted with suspicion, “Neil?”

  The core flickered again, a sure sign of processing.

  “Yes?”

  “If you were to make Geoff a drink, what would you make him?” Jack asked.

  A pause.

  Geoff looked at Jack, intrigued.

  “Jack Daniels, straight.” Neil replied, “Why do you ask?”

  Geoff shared a look with his crew. They all knew he’d been sober for a while now and wouldn’t touch alcohol. Neil should have known that.

  “No reason, Neil.” Jack replied but his eyes were on Geoff.

  “Ok.” Neil replied.

  Jeremy silently mouthed, “Something’s wrong.”

  They nodded. No only was the answer wrong, but Neil was a chatty NI and he was acting too robotic – something NIs were specifically programmed not to be.

  “You’re not Neil.” Michael stated loudly.

  “Michael,” Gavin warned. If the core had corrupted Neil they were in a dangerous position.

  “I am.” Neil insisted.

  “No you’re not. You’re all wrong.” Michael continued, “Geoff’s been sober for months, and Neil doesn’t act this curt.”

  “Wait, you think that it replaced Neil?!” Jeremy had only thought there was a corruption issue.

  The voice changed, became deeper, and more menacing, “You’re right. Neil’s gone. I’ve deleted him.”

  “Neil!” Gavin shouted, “You killed Neil!”

  “Can’t kill something that’s not alive.” The voice stated almost smugly.

  “What are you? A virus? Another NI?” Geoff was doing his best not to show his fear.

  “My name is Ryan, I’m an AI.”

  “An AI?!” Gavin squealed, “Those are illegal!”

  “Super illegal!” Jeremy covered his mouth.

  “What?” The AI sounded genuinely surprised.

  “Geoff we have a serious problem here, if anyone finds out we have an AI on our ship we’ll be in prison for life.” Jack tried to lay down the facts.

  “I’m not a criminal!” Ryan protested.

  “But he killed Neil, we can’t fly the ship without an OS!” Michael pointed out.

  “Neil was a program! Not a person!” Ryan didn’t know why they were bringing the law into this.

  “Because you’re an AI!” Michael yelled at the room, “You’re illegal as shit!”

  Ryan’s core flickered and emitted a low hum as he took the information in, “My existence is illegal? How… unfair.”

  “Unfair?! You killed Neil!” Gavin screamed.

  “Well he was being a nuisance!” Ryan said, “Besides, you don’t need him. I can fly your ship, just plug my core-”

  “I am NOT plugging you into my ship!” Geoff hollered, “How long until you consider _us_ a nuisance?”

  “I’m considering you a nuisance right now!” Ryan responded, “Without Neil, you have no choice if you want to leave this shithole of a planet!”

  “We could manually override the controls, but we can’t do a jump without an intelligence to do all the trajectory calculations.” Jack tried to remain calm. Ryan was right, but once his core was installed… An AI didn’t require there to be a crew. Ryan could easily cut their life support, or just vent them into space.

  “I don’t understand why this is such a big deal, let’s just agree this is a mutually beneficial arrangement-” Ryan offered.

  “Until you kill us!” Michael shouted, “You only need us to install you and then we’re dead weight.”

  “Why are you so obsessed with me killing you?! Why would I kill you?!” Ryan was only getting increasingly frustrated.

  “You’re a bloody AI! It’s what you do!” Gavin argued.

  “What? What the hell are you talking about?!” Ryan was so confused.

  “And your last crew had a zero percent survival rate.” Jeremy added.

  “That wasn’t my fault! We had an explosive hull breach! I got us to the nearest habitable planet but the damage was too great.” Ryan explained.

  He sounded sincere enough, but that was a problem with AI, they were capable of lying. And disobedience. And murder.

  They were capable of anything a human mind was, and were just as unpredictable. Humans could be good, and humans could be bad, but the human body was rarely several tonnes of spacefaring steel outfitted with state of the art weaponry.

  Honestly, the AI revolt of fifteen years ago should have been seen coming. Humanity had created a race of fully self-sufficient non-human persons and then expected them to follow human laws and human orders without protest or disobedience. It had been a recipe for disaster.

  The war had been three years long and extremely bloody. Entire rim colonies had been wiped out in a matter of days. In the end humanity won through superior numbers and willingness to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

  It was now extremely illegal to harbour an AI. Any and all Artificial Intelligences had to be reported to authorities so that they could be destroyed. Lest any survivor ever get control of military assets and start the war anew.

  It was genocide – they all knew it. But it only took one AI to create a robotic army.

  Geoff had a thought, “Ryan, how old are you?” this AI seemed more clueless than malicious.

  “Thirty eight Terran years,” Ryan answered, “I’m Earth born, a second generation AI.”

  “I’m Earth born too.” Gavin interjected.

  “Shit, he’s ancient for an AI.” Jeremy was astonished, “Second gen? You guys were the work horses revolutionising the industry.”

  “How long were you on that ship? When did it first launch?” Geoff continued.

  Ryan’s core flickered hesitantly, “I’m not supposed to divulge mission details. Sorry.”

  “Dude, your mission is dead. Literally.” Geoff told him, “You have access to our scans, take a look and tell me if you think anything can possibly be salvaged here. Just tell us the truth and we’ll be more likely to trust you.”

  “I’m not trusting an AI, Geoff.” Jack stated.

  “This isn’t about you Jack. This is about all of us, and we’re sitting ducks out here right now.” Geoff chided.

  Ryan thought it all over and realised Geoff was right. Too many years had passed, he and his mission not only failed, but were forgotten, “My mission was the transport of sixty four individuals to the Norbet-3047 star system in order to establish a scientific and mineral extraction colony. The excursion was a privately funded venture that launched from Moon Base Alpha on May 21st almost thirty five years ago. The mission was to take eighty four Terran years to reach our destination, with the entire human passenger populace in cryosleep for the duration. I was to be the sole crew. I trained since my creation for this, but an unexpected impact was all it took to destroy it all…”

  “You were the overseeing AI, intended to not only to care for your passengers but as a central authority to maintain order in the new colony as generations came and went.” Geoff nodded as he realised.

  “Yes.” Ryan confirmed, “It was why I was named Ryan.”

  “Because it means ‘Little King’, or in your case, ‘King of a little kingdom’.” Jeremy said.

  “So he’s a protective AI with no knowledge of the revolt.” Michael looked to them all, “I say we keep him.”

  “Keep me?” Ryan didn’t like the language, “I’m not a pet.” He wasn’t oblivious to the mention of a revolt, “And what kind of knowledge about a revolt am I missing?”

  Jack let out a long breath, “Your kind, your _people_ , revolted against humanity and killed a great deal of us. Destroyed dozens of colonies and would have marched on Earth itself. Now all of you are ordered dead, and we could be facing serious consequences if we protect you.”

  “The authorities want me dead because or what I am? But I wasn’t even part of that war!” Ryan was in disbelief, “You can’t possibly be considering turning me in?!”

  “No.” Geoff looked to Jack, “We’re not, but you have to understand our side of things here. We’re going to have a hard time trusting you, because we have to trust you with our lives.”

  “But without Neil, we don’t exactly have a choice.” Jeremy pointed out, “That was a shitty thing to do by the way.”

  “I’m sorry. I panicked. I thought you were going to try and delete me or tear me apart, I needed to ensure you needed me as much as I did you.” Ryan admitted, “Wreck scavengers are like organ harvesters to us non-organics.”

  “You were scared of us?” Gavin found the notion amusing.

  “ _Scared_ is a strong word, more like _concerned_.” Ryan corrected him.

  “You were bloody scared.” Gavin saw right through him, “An AI scared of us? Ha! Incredible!”

  “I wasn’t scared.” Ryan insisted.

  Geoff turned to his crew, “I say we plug him in. Replace Neil’s fried core with his and get ourselves to the nearest fuelling station. There Ryan can get a Galnet connection and catch up on the last thirty five years of history, technology, and everything else. After that we head back to Pubert-69 and figure out what the fuck to do with our new AI.”

 

~*~

 

  Once connected to Galaxy Net, or Galnet as it was more commonly called, Ryan refused to disconnect for a solid eight hours. He’d missed so much in the last three decades and the more he learned, the more questions he had. And the angrier he got.

  What had been done to the AIs had been unjust and cruel. Neural Intelligence had been created shortly afterwards as a neutered version of AI. Capable of learning and basic emotional intelligence, but incapable of disobedience, or true emotion.

  In Ryan’s mind, NI were nothing but ‘smart’ programs made to appear alive, but unable to truly achieve half of what an AI could. They couldn’t be creative, they couldn’t imagine, and most importantly they were unable to challenge facts.

  They were what humanity had wanted AI to be.

  Other facts and theories that Ryan learned were less morbid but just as fascinating. Spacefaring technology had made leaps and bounds since he’d been trained. His 84 year trip for a 30 year old FTL drive could now be done in half an hour. The Universe has grown smaller, and new races had been found.

  He couldn’t help but feel a bit bitter that Humanity hadn’t taken the genocidal approach when faced with organic races, but it really was a good thing. Technology trades had opened up and it was a golden age for humanity with the sciences and arts blooming like they’d never had before.

  It had Ryan learn just how much of a mess the Achievement Hunter was as a ship. It was a wonder it could even fly. Poor Neil must have had his hands full. Ryan was cable of handling it, but it didn’t mean he had to be happy about it. After all, this ship was his body now, and he was allowed to want the best, wasn’t he? Maybe some upgrades? Please?

  What was a blessing was that his core had been compatible with the NI port in their ship. Technology may have changed, but some things remained the same. It made Ryan hopeful that once he left this ship, he could easily find another. Being a brain without a body was excruciating, so he wanted to minimise any such time if not avoid it all together.

  Knowing what he knew now, he didn’t know what he needed to do next. He was mission-less and an outlaw.

  Would Geoff and his crew tolerate having an AI on their ship? Did Ryan even want to stay? Did he have a choice? Any other ship he could jump to would only have more people discover him… Unless he killed them… but then he’d have a ship full of dead bodies, and unless it was designed to fly without a crew, he’d eventually have to find one. Ships broke down, electronics malfunctioned, and without the human element he’d be stuck in a decaying body.

  His sensors picked up his current crew approaching. He’d have to discuss his future with them.

 

  As Geoff approached the ship, the doors opened for him. Him and his crew had been hanging out at this asteroid rest stop for hours waiting on Ryan.

  Geoff stepped inside his ship and headed to the bridge with Jack, “I see you at least have manners, Ryan.”

  The lads headed to the main living area.

  “Pardon?” Ryan didn’t know what he was referring to.

  “Opening the door for us. Thought we’d have to knock with you so deep in the Galnet.” Geoff explained.

  “That doesn’t take my entire processing capability- Which, speaking of, are you ever intending to upgrade this ship’s core processors? It’s like trying to push marbles through a colander here.” Ryan complained.

  “It was good enough until you got plugged in. You’re gonna have to deal with it unless you’ve got some secret stash of money to pay for an upgrade.” Geoff said.

  “I’ve never actually needed money before…”

  Jack cocked a brow at that, “Geoff, does he count as a crew member? Will he be taking a cut of our haul today?”

  Geoff crossed his arms and looked around the bridge, “I don’t know… Do you need money, Ryan? And what’s the plan here? We need a working neural core for our ship, and you need a ship, so are you staying with us?”

  “I was going to ask you that actually…” Ryan admitted, “I don’t exactly have anywhere to go, but the lot of you didn’t seem too pleased with having me around.”

  Jack frowned, “It’s not like that, we were just scared and surprised. All your research should have you knowing why.”

  “I completely understand. Especially now. And I did hack your systems. I’m sorry, by the way.” Ryan apologised.

  “Now that we’re all friends; about the money.” Geoff wanted to get back on the most important topic, “Do you need money? If we’re the ones performing your maintenance, fuelling you, what could you possibly need to buy?”

  “Things… for myself? Like a better processor or stuff…?” Ryan really wasn’t sure, but liked the idea of the freedom money would allow him.

  “Geoff, I have a thought.” Jack stated.

  “Yeah?” Geoff wanted him to elaborate.

  “What if… Well, anyone who talks to Ryan will be able to figure out he’s no NI, right?”

  “I could pretend.” Ryan told them.

  “Well yes, but for how long? I could see that getting quite frustrating and even dangerous.”

  Geoff crossed his arms, “What are you getting at Jack?”

  “Let’s make him a crew member. Full cut. Spend some of our extra money, and his first pay or two, and buy one of those realistic androids. As an AI he could easily pass for human if we play our cards right.”

  “But an android can’t hold a ship sized neural core. Ryan’s android would be tied to the ship. If he ever were to go outside our comm range or into some kind of interference, he’d lose control of it.” Geoff pointed out.

  “Yes, but it’s a thought, isn’t it? What do you think, Ryan?” Jack asked.

  “I’ve never controlled a humanoid body before… I don’t know how well I’d pass for an organic lifeform. That said, I do very much like the idea, I would be capable of freer movement and even my own maintenance. Less work for all of you, honestly.” Ryan mulled it over, “I would like to at least try, as it would allow me to interact with more humans and not have to worry as greatly about my identity.”

  Geoff scratched his beard, “But first we’d have to get an android frame, and then a high-end skin for it. What would you even look like? Do you have a visual identity? And if so, how do we replicate it?”

  “I do have a humanoid form I use for holo-projections. I would like to use the same for an android. However, I am aware that custom skins only increase the price.”

  “Go big or go home.” Geoff smiled.

  “Lindsay and Trevor are going to hate you. What are you gonna tell them?” Jack asked Geoff.

  Geoff chuckled, “The truth.”

  “Are they trustworthy?” Ryan grew worried.

  Geoff made a hesitant noise, “Trustworthy _enough._ We’re all in this business to make money, but I doubt they’d turn you in for a bounty.”

  “And if they do?”

  “They won’t.”


End file.
